


A Problematic Snap

by JusticeHawk



Category: The Candle Cult
Genre: Even if she really didn't mean to, Graphic Torture, Tapis insane and shes made very sure Problem is too, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-12
Updated: 2015-11-12
Packaged: 2018-05-01 07:04:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5196695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JusticeHawk/pseuds/JusticeHawk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Problem's sanity is a waxing and waning thing. When she's sane, shes a kind and loving woman who cares deeply for the younger cultists and wants nothing more then to protect them. When she isn't, well, blood runs in more colors then just red.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Problematic Snap

**Author's Note:**

> I figured i'd start posting some of these. Might as well I've got a million stories where Crazy Problem comes out and messes things up. She's fun, let me know if you want to play with her sometimes dears.

“You’re going to ruin her just like you ruin everything.” A smirk that’s all malice and mocking and petty, horrible jealousy. “You should just give her to me instead.” 

“You should just give her to me instead.”

“Give her to me.”

She could almost hear the moment something snapped in her head. A quiet crack, a shift in view, everything going skewed and black and wrong. Whispers tickled through her head, like the sounds of her shadows, hissing sibilant little things. “DON’T LET HER WIN.” They growled and murmured and screamed. “YOURS YOURS YOURS.”

And Tapi, “Betrayal, sister, betrayal BREAK HER!” was staring at her, looking at her like there was something wrong with HER and wasn’t that just ironic? Wasn’t it so funny that this little princess who reveled in blood and pain thought that she had the problem? Well maybe she wasn’t wrong. After all, she WAS a problem. Or so she said, hissed, spat and claimed, whispered it while she cut away everything everything EVERYTHING!

But she could play along, she could be a problem. 

And just like any other problem, she would wreck everything she touched.

Smiling, she stepped towards Tapi, the girl’s words coming to her through a filter, “What are you doing, why are you looking at me like-” 

Problem cupped her cheek, thumb stroking ever so softly under the short haired girl’s (BETRAYAL) eye. “No.” She said quietly, and then her grip was tightening and she was slamming Tapi’s head into the wall. The stone cracked and broke, chips of it crumbling to the ground as Tapi slid down the wall. Problem’s hand was still loosely curled around her head, and ah yes that dazed look in Tapi’s eye, her glasses snapped and broken on the floor. The pain, the confusion, a concussion just starting to set in. 

Just to be sure, she tightened her grip, slamming the leader against the wall once more and oh that was blood wasn’t it? Dripping, bright green, sending slick little trails down pale skin. It was beautiful, what an interesting color so luminescent and strange. With her free hand she probed her fingers along that wound and Tapi whimpered a little through her concussed haze.”Shhhh.” Problem soothed, pulling her hand back up and studying the green liquid.

It was, thinner then she’d expected, smoothing and spreading between her fingers as she rubbed them together. She’d have to test how fast it congealed in comparison to human blood but judging by its general consistency she’d say it would possibly take longer. Thinner blood tended to do that but then again Tapi wasn’t a human, different rules. She sniffed it, it smelled similar, like copper but a tad smokier. Frowning, she ran her tongue along the pad of her finger, sure enough it was sweet. 

Interesting.

Another whimper escaped Tapi and her expression gentled back into a smile. “Hush dear.” She cooed tightening her grip in the other woman’s hair once more. Turning, she began to drag her down the hall, ignoring the way Tapi hissed and squirmed weakly behind her. It would take her a little while to recover from that concussion, she could control a concussed Tapi easily enough. And if not, she’d just break her until she couldn’t move. 

Simple.

The doors she stopped before were grand, wooden things stretching up to the ceiling and covered in quietly sparking ruins and seals. A quick brush of her hand and a whispered word had them opening easily and as she dragged Tapi inside, they shut just like that. Trapping her inside. Problems eyes scanned the room (hers hers HERS) as she walked through it, Tapi dripping tiny little spots of blood in their wake. What she needed wasn’t in immediate view but, a brief flick of her hand and the shelves were parting, clearing a large circle of space for her to use. 

Another flick brought everything she needed zipping to her side, most prominent among them being a long, steel examination table. She dropped Tapi with a thump, reaching out to unlock the heavy metal restraints at either end of the table. Tentacles wrapped around the girl, picking her up and placing her on the table. “Nn-st-op.” Tapi murmured as Problem tugged her hands over her head, securing them easily.

“Shhhh.” The blonde cooed grabbing up one of Tapi’s ankles. It jerked slightly in her grasp and the short haired girl twisted, trying to free herself. “Now now Dawn,” Problem reprimanded, “be a good girl and behave for once.”

Tapi went immediately still, eyes wide and shocked and just a little, pained. Problem couldn’t help but smile at her as she restrained both of those still, limp feet. “Good girl.” She praised patting Tapi’s leg. 

Tapi made a sound like a growl and a whimper but lay there motionless as Problem stepped around the table, stopping at the head of it. “You’re always so poisonous.” She commented reaching out to cup Tapi’s cheek. “Like knives in foul water.” Her hand stroked that pale skin sweetly. “Pushing me away and breaking my heart but always always clinging to me like the child you are.” Problem’s smile gentled ever more. “You’re so pathetic.”

Tapi’s head turned towards Problem's hand, almost as if to nuzzle it. Instead her teeth clamped around the flesh of the older woman’s hand sharply. Her still rather unfocused eyes managing to glower back up at her captor. Problem tutted quietly, her free hand wrapping around the short haired girls throat and squeezing. “That’s not very nice dear.” 

Her fingers dug in and in until Tapi was jerking under her grasp, gasping for breath. Both hands were pulled away then. “There’s a good girl.” Problem praised, once again stroking the choking, gasping leader’s cheek. “Now then, since you’re so keen to keep me close.” She turned to the small table beside her, eyes running over a plethora of instruments. “Why don’t you and I spend some (betrayal BETRAYAL) quality time together?”

The cult leader twisted in her bonds, shoulders rising up off the metal table slightly as she did so. Blood trickled down her face from her earlier wound and ran across one of her eyes, making her shut it to keep the liquid out. "You're," she took in a few shallow breaths, ones that didn't further hurt her now aching throat. "You'll regret this. I'll make," the room tilted off axis and she squeezed both eyes shut to fight back the nasuea churning her gut. "Make you pay."

Problem hummed quietly in response picking up a small knife and bottle before returning her attention to Tapi. "Of course you will dear." She said absently, as if merely humoring the other. "Always so quick to spit threats. How, annoying." 

The knife was turned about in her hand, eyes scanning down Tapi's body, searching for the right spot. It needed to bleed well, well enough to fill up a vile. Finally she settled on the thigh, that precious artery was always so ready to just spill open and bleed bleed BLEED everywhere. "Do hold still Dawn." She commanded softly as she moved the trail of Tapi's cape out of the way and gripped her leg. "This will only take a moment."

Tapi whined at the other's words, head still swimming in pain and unable to see what the older woman was doing, on the faint sensation of fabric brushing against her thigh befor a sharp sting on the flesh there. Her eyes flew open at the cut and her body jerked out from under Problem's nimble hands, dragging the knife further across her leg.

"Now now." The nightmare sighed tugging the knife away. "No need to be so eager dear." She grabbed the weakly struggling girls leg and pressed it hard to the table, stilling it while she pressed the vial along the heavily bleeding gash. It quickly filled up and she tugged it away, corking in and placing it back on the table. 

"You really should be more careful Dawn," Problem reprimanded pressing her fingers to the wound. She smiled and dug them in. "I don't need a skin sample just yet, you may have botched the results, how rude."

A small cry left the younger’s lips at the burn that came from Problem's digits pushing into the new wound, though she refrained from trying to get her body away again. No, she was definitely stuck here, trapped and at her former mentors whims, for now. Her breath hitched slightly before she could quell it, tears stinging her eyes as a faint memory of a similar situation flashed through her mind. She could do this, she could hold on until Problem finished or grew bored. She did before, right? 

Tapi tensed as Problem began moving again, eyes screwing shut so she couldn't watch.

Sighing, the matriarch tugged her fingers free with a bloody, sick sounding squelch. She inspected them as she had before, dyed bright green and oh wasn't that a wonderful feeling? The slick of liquid iron between her fingers, under her nails, dying her skin in so many wonderful shades. Eyes falling half shut she slid the fingers into her mouth and sucked on them, Tapi's blood really was quite- "sweet." She hissed, pulling them out and licking her lips. 

"How peculiar that you blood is so sweet when you're so, sour." The nightmares smiled at her as she pressed her hand to Tapi's stomach, feeling the girls breath hitch at the touch. "It's ironic isn't it? That someone as awful as you could have such a sweet tasting blood."

She laughed, a musical, empty sound that dropped like stones around the room. "Maybe I should fill your veins with poison," Problem mused already looking about for an IV, "it would suit you far better."

She couldn't hold back the bitter comments that pooled in her tongue, although she knew she should, knew she should just be quiet. "What- will you, fill them-" she whimpered as the fear she'd been fighting back and her concussion made her pause and have to breathe through her pain. "Fill them with your, your own blood? That's, the most poisonous, thing here."

Problem huffed a quiet laugh, finger's tapping against the quivering girl's stomach. "Oh don't be ridiculous Dawn," she cooed claws extending and brushing oh so lightly up, resting over the fluttering little heart. "I don't want to kill you." The claws pressed in, scraping against her skin. "I love you." 

She stopped herself from plunging her claws into the girls skin, and shredding her heart to bits. As poetic as that would be, as fascinating as it would be to watch such a dead heart break, that would end things far too quickly. "Then again," she mused, a needle lay clean and unused on the table beside her, "wouldn't that be just what you've always wanted?" The nightmare plucked it up and prepared it. "To have my blood running through your veins? To have me as the family you so desperately chase?"

The needle was pushed into Problems skin, and the blood that came out was black as the night sky. "You scramble after me so helplessly after all, always craving my attention, never good enough, never better then my dearest little Grace." She pulled it out, inspecting the dark, hissing liquid inside. "I'll tell you a secret love," leaning down she pressed a loving kiss to the girl's cheek, "you'll never be as good as Grace." The needle, was plunged into Tapi's heart and the girl gasped under her. "But don't worry," Problem soothed as the younger woman whined, "I love you anyway."

A scream echoed in Problem's study, the sound something the room hadn't heard in a long time. Tapi thrashed under Problem's hands, white pupils blown wide and eyes rolling back in her head as the nightmare's poisonous blood coursed through her body, spreading out under the pale skin in spiderwebs of black. She wanted to reach out and choke Problem, claw and burn the other until she was the one lying bloody before her. Silence those cruel words that hurt more than the deadly blood now in her veins or wounds that marred her body.

"Shhh, thats it," Problem said in a soft, calming voice. Her hand pressed hard against the writhing, screaming girl's chest, forcing all of the blood inside of her before she pulled out the needle. "Take it in dear, this is the blood you gave me, the blood you forced into my veins." She smiled sweetly, words only barely audible over the breaking leader's screams. "And now i'm giving it back. Fulfilling your greatest wish. Isn't it wonderful?" 

The needle was tossed carelessly aside, shattering against the floor, just as useless as the girl on the table. "My blood running through your veins," Problem's hand pressed to Tapi's throat, tracing pulsing, black webs with a pleased sigh, "I wonder if you'll turn into even more of a monster?" She laughed then, dismissing the idea. "No, I don't think that’s possible. I doubt that anything could be more monstrous then you just the way you are."

A mix of black and luminescent green blood dribbled out the corner of her mouth as her screams continued, body arching up and then dropping with a heavy thud back down. Her eyes altered between being as black as the new blood pulsing through her and their typical blue and white, staring unseeingly up at the ceiling. Tapi took in shuddering breaths. "I-I'm n-no, t-t-the-" her voice trembled from the restrained sobs she held back, tears pooling on her lower eyelids and threatening to spill over. She couldn't speak, couldn't manage to even screaming again. 

Everything burned, burned more than her own fire. The cult leaders flame dance above her head spastically, as if trying to grab onto the first thing it could and set it alight. She wanted to hurt- not be the one hurting.

"You're-you're?" Problem repeated a tad mockingly. When all Tapi could do in reply was glare and sob she laughed, wiping up the blood that slipped so steadily down her chin. "You're not the monster?" She cooed. "What does that make you then, the damsel, the victim? Trapped and burning? Poor little Dawn, always screaming and deluded."

"If you keep crying wolf then no one will believe you when real wolves are tearing you to shreds." Problem hummed absently wiping Tapi's blood off on the girl's own clothes. "Don't worry dear, I'll protect you."

Tapi flinched and tried moving away, the action fruitless due to her bonds. "Y-you couldn't, protect, Grace or me." She shot back, eyes briefly closing as the lights in the room suddenly became too much for her to handle. "You're, the wolf."

"I suppose it takes one to know one doesn't it Dawn?" Problem responded watching the girl blink rapidly. "Whats wrong dear?" She cupped her cheeks, tilting her head round. "Are your eyes bothering you?"

"Let, go." she hissed out, more at the pain of the lights then Problem's touch and words.

The former mentor ignored her. "So sensitive. Do you want me to make it all better dear?"

Tapi tried twisting her head out of the nightmares's hands, her breath hitching at the implications in the womans voice, but barely managed to move it even an inch.

"Sshhh, don't struggle dear." Problem cooed, one of her tenacles coming up to hold Tapi's head still. One of her hands pried open the girl's eyelid, and oh god she could see it, see Problem's finger's on her eye. "Big sister will make it all better." She pressed them in, under the eyelid, which bulged grotesquely around them as she wrapped her fingers around Tapi's eye.

She screamed again, her head trying to twist away from the pain pain pain pain that came from the other digging her fingers in where they didn't belong. Tapi's hands pulled against the restraints that held them down as blood and tears leaked from the the socket of the eye Problem worked to pull out.

"Don't fret love, it's almost over." Her claws found purchase towards the back, and with a quick rip it was loose, plunging Tapi into a partial world of black. Blood pooled in the hole Problem left as she pulled the eye free, but that could be taken care of momentarily. First she needed to get the eye into a jar. "See? That wasn't so bad Dawn, all that screaming over nothing." 

She wandered off, searching about her shelved for a suitable jar and quickly discovering one. It would keep for the moment she thought as she placed it inside and returned to Tapi. The girl lay panting and shaking on the table, quiet sobs escaping her as blood dripped like tears out of the empty socket. Her eyelid fluttered uselessly, unsure what to do without and eye to protect. "And since that one was so easy," the jar was set down beside the vial of blood she'd filled earlier, "I'm sure you won't even feel the next one."

Problem smiled, a soft loving smile at the use of her real name. Her heart swelled a little, filling with love and (hate hate HATE) affection. (HOW DARE SHE THAT-) She hushed the girl, wiping away the blood and the tears as one of her tentacles wrapped her head up again. "Shhhh, its okay Dawn. I'm here, i'll make it better." A loving, gentle little kiss was placed on Tapi's pale, sweating brow as her finger's moved to the remaining eye. 

"Everything will be alright. It went faster this time, Problem's finger's surer and her claws swifter and more precise but the screams were just as loud, parted only by begging and "Morgan Morgan Morgan!!" But soon enough the eye was out, and Tapi was blind. Not a word was said as Problem dropped the eye into the jar along with its mate but she was quick to stroke away blood from those pale shaking cheeks and coo reassurances. "Isn't that better?" She asked smoothing hair out of Tapi's face. "I told you I would take care of it."

She could barely breathe past the agony, each inhale was stuttered and every exhale choked. She couldn't see there was nothing there but Problem's voices and hand and and- the cult leader cried. She cried like she was a child again watching the one person she'd come to love try to leave her for a dead soul. Tapi wasn't able to say anything, wasn't able to fight back now like she did then and instead turned her face towards the hand that ran across it, desperately needing the false affection.

"Don't cry Dawn," the nightmare shushed. She whispered a quick spell, the tip of her finger igniting with a small flame. It burned away the blood, sending a sick, smokey scent around the room. "Doesn't this feel better? Now the light won't bother you anymore. And now to a pretty little bandage." 

Tapi didn't move as her eyelids were once agan opened, didn't do a thing until hot, burning oh god the flame was pressed to the bleeding place her eye had once been, cauterizing it in a haze of burning pain. "Shhh, don't fret precious i'm here." The same treatment was given to the other eye, and the smell of burning flesh joined the burnt smokey bloody one.

Tapi shrieked at the pain, her body trembling from the agony. She was smoke and fire, another’s flame shouldn't hurt yet here she was, sobbing as Problem's magic burned her flesh and muscle. "Moganstopstopstoppleasepleaseplease" she begged voice high and fading in and out as waves of pain rolled through her. "NomorenomorenomoreI'msorryI'msorryI'msorrystoppleasepleasestoppleasestopstopstop!!!!!!!"

Through it all Problem simply hummed, a quiet tuneless little song that sounded almost like a lullaby. When she was finally done the flame flicked out of existence leaving her hand bare aside from the blood, some of it blackened and smoking on her skin. "There, all better." She kissed Tapi's forehead again. "Of all the things to scream over, you've done so much worse to me you know. And here you are falling apart over something as pathetic as losing your eyes." She nuzzled the girl's face. "You've gotten weak dear."

Her words were unable to leave her throat though her lips continued to move, saying no over and over. She knew there was truth to Problem's words but she was never....Tapi was never on the receiving end of their pain. Yes, Dybbuk mentally and emotionally abused her non-stop, but this physical pain she hadn't felt in ages. The cult leader rose off the table slightly, as if she might be able to magically break free and escaped her crazed rival's torture.

Problem chuckled at that, and without a word she slammed her fist down hard on Tapi's thigh, snapping the bone there cleanly. Tapi's following scream was choked and more of a sob then anything else, lost as she already was in pain. But it was enough to drop her back onto the table where she writhed blindly, breath coming in deep, horrific gasps. "Now where do you think you're going dear?" The crazed matriarch cooed. 

"Are you trying to get away from me? Me?" She squeezed that broken leg, listening to the bones creak and snap as they rubbed against each other in all the wrong way. "And after all I've done for you too. What a useless, ungrateful brat you are Dawn. Why can't you just be good, like Grace?"

More tears spilled down her face, the liquid tinged green and black from the wounds in her sockets. She shook her head rapidly and tried to curl in on herself even though she knew the gesture wouldn't work. The flame above her head shrunk and and a tiny sob bubbled from her lips at Problem's words, what she was said hurting the most.

"She was so sweet, so kind and gentle." Problem continued as she pulled another knife from the table. "Always willing to help those around her, to lend a hand." The knife was torn up the front of Tapi's dress, exposing her chest and stomach. "Really nothing like you at all." 

Tapi jerked, whimpering quietly as the steely tip pressed to her stomach. "You're like a cheap imitation." It dug in, dragging up and tearing Tapi open in a neat, bloody line. Terrified, pained screams left her as she lay there blind and helpless under her former mentor's hand. Unable to do a thing while the blonde cut her open, exposing her organs for inspection. "Really nothing more then a doll. I wonder why I picked you up in the first place." The knife was set aside. "I would've been much better off without you."

"Of course," her fingers tugged on the girl's small intestine, positioning it properly so that she could cut away a piece of it. "I still love you anyway." Another bit of intestine was sliced off, dropped on the table beside Tapi's open torso instead of in careful jars like the blood and eyes had been. "Even though you've failed me so completely. Again," another piece, "and again," and another, "and again."

"Why can't you ever get anything right I wonder?" She dropped the knife, not even bothering to use it as she slid her claws around Tapi's liver, tearing it out quickly and throwing it to the ground. "Is it my fault?" A snarl briefly crossed her lips and she slammed her hand into her former apprentice's throat. "IS IT?!" She yelled, her voice two toned and echoing. 

There was no response other then the frantic jerking and gasping of the girl under her. This seemed to relax the nightmare for she released her grip, smoothing her fingers along the already blossoming bruises added to Tapi's throat. "No of course not, you can't ruin whats already worthless can you?"

Tapi struggled to gasp through her partially crushed trachea, trying to fight down the panic that swelled through her like a torrential storm. “M-Mor-” She choked, so lost and hurt and scared all she could even think to try to say was her once mentor’s name. 

Problem simply shushed her again, “I know dear, there’s no need to apologize. I forgive you.” She ran her fingers lightly up through the exposed organs, an almost affectionate touch. “It was ridiculous of me to expect you to live up to her image. After all, she was perfect and you’re not.” The nightmare laughed, expression cold behind her sweet smile. “Such a heartless girl,” she tilted her head contemplatively, “so heartless, I wonder if you could live without that useless heart of yours.”

Looking excited Problem walked off to find more jars, already latching onto her current idea. “Yes, I suppose you don’t need it after all.” She mused more to herself then to Grace-Dawn-Tapi as she plucked up a few jars and returned to the girls side. “You never use it after all.” The bits of intestine were gathered and placed in one, the liver in another, each carefully set aside with the other jars. “And I would take much better care of it then you.”

Tapi whimpered quietly, her struggles weak as the older monster went on about how heartless she was, how it wouldn’t matter if she didn’t have one and no no please Morgan don’t. She wanted to yell, scream, beg, wake up from this nightmare, curl into the normal, sane Problem’s lap and cry. She wanted Problem back, she wanted MORGAN back. But now- “Yes,” hands wrapped covetously around her heart, “I’ll take much better care of it.” 

Now she had a monster all of her own making.

Problem’s claws dug into the poison black veins and arteries connecting the heart to the rest of Tapi’s body and slit through them without a thought. They severed so cleanly, so easily, like this dying, black heart longed to get away from its careless, cruel body. It was almost as if it knew that Problem had come for it, to save it from its cold prison. “Shh,” she cooed to it, “don’t worry, i’m here for you.” It bled rivulets of green and black as she cut off the last of its chains, heedless of Tapi’s screaming. 

“How ugly you’ve become.” She commented as she pulled it out, cupping it lovingly in her stained hands. Beneath her Tapi screamed and choked and whimpered and writhed as her body began to hiss and burn, turning into naught but smoke before her eyes. “Don’t worry Dawn.” Problem cooed with empty white eyes, “I’ll love it far better then you did.” 

With that she kissed the heart once, and placed it carefully in the another jar which she then picked up and held close against her chest. Tapi was now entirely smoke, soundless and dark, a mass of pure nothing. 

Fitting really. 

“Giving up already dear?” Problem questioned sweetly. “Weak as always.” The jar was set down again and Problem surveyed herself almost absently. “Now look at this, you’ve made quiet a mess.” 

Sighing she removed her sweater with careful, bloody hands and set it down on the exam table, her skin rippled black and horrific as she did so and when she smiled next her teeth were all sharp. “I have something else to take care of now.” She told the smoke, reaching out to stroke a hand through it. It shivered and seemed to morph away from her touch and she couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh don’t be like that love.” A wave of her hand had the smoke gathered into a condensed little ball and shoved into the last of the jars. Problem picked it up, whispering to it and with a crackle the jar was sealed. 

She smiled at the shaking jar, kissing it once and leaving a smear of green across it. “Be a good girl while i’m gone Dawn.” The nightmare cooed, placing the jar on the table beside her sweater.

And then she was turning, walking away, leaving a broken, trapped Tapi, jars of organs, and a bloodstained sweater behind her.


End file.
